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Atchoum, an on-demand rural transportation solution

Atchoum invented and patented its own word – “courvoiturage”, a contraction of the words for “short” and “pooling” in French – to define what it does as a startup: helping people get from place to place in rural areas through carpooling. Atchoum will join ENGIE at Viva Technology to share their project.

Vincent Desmas, the president of Atchoum, introduced us to his company.

Atchoum is a local transportation solution that relies on social ties and carpooling in rural areas.

It’s about a “turnkey” transportation solution that offers local governments a way to meet citizens’ local transportation needs in rural areas when they might not be as mobile as before.

How does it work?

For the local government, it’s a turnkey service in which Atchoum manages reserving trips for residents via a phone hotline, communications and even making vehicles available (with electric cars).

Among the numerous positive benefits of setting this service up, I’d like to mention:

· Improving local attractiveness

· Helping local businesses thrive

· Slowing down the pace of rural flight

Users make a request through the platform, indicate which driver they want and the platform connects them.

The advantages for the user include getting easier access to healthcare, local businesses and jobs. For drivers: they get paid based on a rate set before pickup.

What is the concept of “courvoiturage”? What do you mean?

We use this word (which we’ve patented) to better explain what we’re doing: short-distance carpooling. We pick people up at their houses, drop them off where they want to go and help them use the service. So it’s not the same thing as carpooling, thus the new name.

What’s innovative about this project?

This is the first mobility solution that focuses on travel in rural areas and provides an innovative daily response to these needs via its telephone call center in a way that meets the transport needs of the elderly in particular but also for young people and adults who are unable to or don’t have access to digital tools.

Why do you want to participate in Vivatech with ENGIE?

Atchoum is happy to participate in Vivatech because it is the best showcase in France for showcasing and getting media attention for our solution for rural transport in partnership with Engie, which is one of the largest French companies involved in ecological issues, supporting startups and whose reputation, image and media presence have a certain technological and financial weight.

For you the future will be...

The future for Atchoum will involve getting ourselves established very quickly with all rural communities at the national level and finding financial support and partnerships as well as communicating about what we do and developing closer relationships with the associations, companies, and other initiatives that touch on the issue of transportation in rural areas to help get our transport solution off the ground and add to their existing offers.